Cold War Conversations Podcast

Declassified photos from Polish government archives show a team of safecrackers inside the vault of the US consulate in Poznan one night in the early 1980s. The men were specialists from Section IX, Department II of the Secret Service of the Polish People’s Republic. Throughout the Cold War they regularly penetrated foreign embassies and consulates throughout Poland at night when they were unoccupied. The team didn’t just break in once but entered many of the supposedly secure facilities on a weekly basis, disabling security systems, picking locks, and photographing documents. One of the keys to their success was also their greatest danger: radiation. Section IX built powerful, portable x-ray machines to bombard vault doors and reveal their inner workings. Team members were exposed to radiation 500x greater than was safe, and many succumbed to cancer later in life. In the case of the consulate pictured here, a curved steel rod holding a radioactive isotope was inserted through a tiny hole drilled below the vault door. X-ray film was then placed in front of the Mosler combination lock, and the isotope would reveal the inner workings of the wheel mechanism within approximately 90 minutes, all while bombarding the Section IX men with radiation as well. Once they were inside, the Mosler file cabinet was not bolted to the floor so it could be tilted forward and the isotope again placed behind it, and the x-ray film in front. They only needed to use these methods once until the combination was changed. Section IX was so good at their craft that Polish records show they broke into the US consulates in Krakow and Poznan 44 times in 1982 alone. For episode 122 of the Spycraft 101 podcast I spoke with Tomasz Awlasewicz, author of Invisible: The Greatest Secret of the Secret Services of the Polish People’s Republic. We discussed the methods used to access the most secure rooms of foreign embassies and consulates inside Poland, and the heavy price the technicians and operatives of Section IX paid for their groundbreaking work. The episode is available now. #coldwar #consulate #safecracker #radiation #xray youtube.com/watch?v=Xp0IbveH…

In May 1958, CIA pilot Allen Pope was shot down and captured while flying a Douglas B-26 Invader during the Indonesian Crisis. After learning that Pope was being held on house arrest at a jungle resort on the slopes of Mt. Merapi, and had some freedom of movement outside, the CIA’s Technical Services Staff came up with a plan to air-drop an inflatable airplane to him, so he could rescue himself. According to authors Robert Wallace and Keith Melton, CIA turned to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, which had been working to develop an inflatable rubber plane called the Inflatoplane. Several prototypes were built for the US military, including single-seat and dual-seat designs. The single-seat model could be packed up in a mere 44 cubic feet with a 40-hp engine and propeller strapped on top. There was also an onboard air compressor which would maintain positive pressure during flight, even if the aircraft were punctured by several .30 caliber bullets. The Inflatoplane had relatively low top speeds and range but was considered more than sufficient for the Pope rescue scenario. Inflatoplanes were designed to be filled with compressed air from a canister, but the CIA worked instead to fill the fuselage with chemical pellets. When Pope reached the aircraft, all he would need to do was pour water into the reservoir, which would react with the chemical pellets, quickly filling the rubber fuselage with an inert gas. Pope could then fly himself to safety. The prototype was tested and ready, but the rescue operation was ultimately canceled for unknown reasons. Pope remained under house arrest until 1962, when he was released after diplomatic negotiations. Some reports indicate two paramilitary CIA officers assisted him in escaping to safety. Pope returned to service with the CIA afterwards as a pilot on covert missions. Years later when another mission offered the potential of using the inflatable airplane, CIA technicians pulled it from the warehouse only to discover that the rubber was dried up and cracked due to lack of maintenance. The prototype was discarded, never to be used again. #cia #indonesia #prisoner #rescue #escape